Can These Bones Live Again?: Healing the Wounded Church

By Don Shackelford

God is asking His church to see the wounded soldiers of the cross through His eyes and asking the ever-important question to those engaged in this battle called life: In your opinion, can the fallen church members ever be used by Me in the pulpits and ministry again?

We are being challenged by the Most High God to restore the fallen soldiers of the cross in the spirit of meekness, considering themselves also vulnerable to temptation.

As time draws near to the final call and the church prays for an end-time revival, it is time to become the revival we are praying for.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Nov 21, 2013
• ISBN: 9781490816302

Don Shackelford

Forty years ago, Don Shackelford received the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior. Seven years later, Don cofounded his first church, serving as the associate pastor. In 1998 Don became the senior pastor of a local community church in South Carolina. During his fifteen-year tenure as the senior pastor, he founded a childcare facility, a Sunday morning and Sunday evening Christian church service for both men and women in the county jail, a drug and alcohol rehab housing facility for men coming out of jail, a private Christian school for children from preschool to twelfth grade, a safe house for abused women and children, and various missions in two different countries in Africa. Today Don and his wife, Brenda, are missionaries in Africa, concentrating on the rebuilding of the war-torn nation of Sierra Leone.

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Copyright © 2013 Don Shackelford.

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-1631-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-1632-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-1630-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013921402

WestBow Press rev. date: 11/20/2013

Contents

Dedication

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Endorsements

The Wounded Army of God

Preface   A Shaking

Introduction   Revival Is Coming

My Story; Why This Message Is Important to Me

I’ve Fallen And I Can’t Get Up!

Chapter 1   Smoking Flax

Chapter 2   One Anothers

Chapter 3   Don’t Bury the Wounded Too Soon

Chapter 4   Looking Like Christians

Chapter 5   Life in the Wounds

Chapter 6   God Is For Us

Chapter 7   Running the Race

Chapter 8   How to Forgive Men Their Trespasses

Chapter 9   Keep Your Eyes on the Prize

Chapter 10   Watch Who You Leave Behind

Chapter 11   Run to the Battle

The Battle Called Life

Conclusion

About the Author

Jesus,

You are good, and Your mercy endures forever.

Let us love like You do.

Dedication

I dedicate this book to my wonderful wife, Brenda Mae Shackelford. Her love, encouragement, patience, understanding, support, and faith in me exceed my words. I can never say enough good about the rib God has blessed me with. When I found her, I found a good thing, and I have received the favor of God. Thank you for who you are and what you mean to me.

I love you!

Foreword

by Apostle Floyd Baker Sr.

For several years Don Shackelford has ministered to the fallen in a very effective and powerful jail ministry, even providing a home and work for those who wanted it. Don is one of the restored ones, and he is a man who has a passion for the lost and broken to be restored so they can be laborers in this last-days harvest.

For many years the church by and large has been terribly wrong in the way it has treated its fallen ones. We have wasted tremendously valuable and gifted resources. We have been burying them instead of restoring them according to the Scripture. Galatians 6:1 (KJV) says, Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. We have remembered discipline and forgotten that the command is to restore (ref. Rom. 14).

In this book, Don Shackelford has brought to light our consciences and our responsibility. I have known Don for many years and have labored with him, and I can testify this book is not theory but well thought out and lived out on a daily basis. I challenge all Christians, all backslidden, and especially all pastors and elders to read this book even though it will challenge your thinking and traditions. After all, are we not almost all in agreement that our Lord Jesus will return soon for a church without spot or wrinkle?

—Apostle Floyd Baker, Sr.

Apostle Floyd Baker Sr. has been ministering for fifty-seven years. He traveled throughout the United States and many places in the world and conducted services where many medically documented miracles and healings took place. He was the evangelist for CBN’s 700 Club, working with Pat Robertson during the seventies. Since then he has traveled in many parts of the body of Christ ministering to pastors and churches.

Acknowledgments

This is a list of the men of God (in no specific order) who stood by my side during the darkest, driest, hardest days of my life. Without their love for the Lord and for me, this book would not have been possible.

• Sheriff Ray Nash

• Lt. Col. Mark Closson

• Pastor Cameron Kirker

• Pastor Seymour Cook

• Rev. Rick Lindsay

• Rabbi (Messianic) BJ Harris

• Tom Timm

• Bill Gadol

• Tom Epperson

I am forever indebted to you men for loving and believing in me when the world around me was closing in.

Endorsements

As a long-time friend and mentor, Pastor Don has a heart of compassion for those who have been hurt and wounded in the Army of God. He doesn’t just speak about the hurt and wounded; he has personally traveled down that road and back many times. This book is Holy Spirit inspired, and has been written for such a time as this."

Pastor Steve Brunson, Mercy Heart Ministries

Some know the Bible, others do the Bible. A friend of many years I have watched Pastor Don walk out his faith. This is a true Man of God who not only knows the Word but does the Word every day. He has blessed me and my family time and time again and I know the experiences he shares in this book will bless you and yours as well. This is a man who I can trust with all that I have because I know he is owned by God and guided by the Holy Spirit.

William N. Gadol, President, FedMedical. Inc.

Pastor Don Shackelford has been my dear friend for over twenty years. We’ve ministered together in the US and in some of the most remote and dangerous places on earth. I have watched him handle all of the trials common to men, along with many unusual challenges that only pastors and missionaries seem to face. Additionally, Pastor Don has had personal health issues that were potentially life threatening and lost many close friends and family members to premature death. In every trial, Don has proven himself to be a true man of God and more than a conqueror. He is an overcomer in the Biblical sense of the word. Pastor Don shares from his own vast life experiences and points readers to his consistent trust in our Lord Jesus and the truth of God’s Word. Enjoy and be blessed.

Pastor H. Pitts Evans, Pastor Whole Word Fellowship, Oakton, VA

It has been my privilege and joy to have worked very closely with Don for a number of years on some key projects. I found him to be a man of great passion and integrity. He has the uncanny ability to know when one mission is done and when it is time to start into the new one. I have watched both he and his precious wife Brenda lay everything on the line to give themselves to help others whether in the States or building a church or school in the War Torn Nation of Sierra Leone.

Apostle Floyd Baker, Sr.

Our US Special Forces intentionally deploy a seasoned well trained combat mission ready soldier behind enemy lines to function as Head Quarter’s eyes and ears; and, to assist the Commander in Charge to determine the strengths or weakness of any potential enemy or threat. Wisely, In his book, Can These Bones Live Again?, Pastor Don takes his reader into the fray of becoming a Forward Observer Team Member witnessing the remarkable spiritual battles that shake the resolve of the strong hearted and forge Kingdom Relationships into Faithful Allies of The Commander of All Commanders, The First and the Last, The Sustainer of All Things, The Keeper of Promise, The Dispatcher of Purpose; and known through the seen and unseen Kingdom Realms of Everlasting as HIS MAJESTY - - The King of Kings and The Lord of Lord’s of all that is and all that is to come; i.e., THE LORD JESUS CHRIST! By drawing upon his battle tested experience, insight, and revelation knowledge from the study of God’s Word, you will be drawn to embrace Don’s motto: God is Faithful! This book is a fast read; however, you will read it a second and